Molly’s portrait of James Baldwin will be on display in his former home, Les Amis de la Maison Baldwin, in Saint-Paul de Vence, France along with several other portraits of the beloved writer and activist. The show will run for the next year with an opening reception on March 28th.

Molly Crabapple & Marwan Hisham: Syria in Ink
March 22–April 26, 2019

Molly Crabapple & Marwan Hisham: Syria in Ink presents vivid images and words of the Syrian conflict and the country’s partial occupation by ISIS, and the besieged consciousness of a young Syrian man finding his voice as a writer. The exhibition includes over fifty original drawings by artist Molly Crabapple and the voice of author and journalist Marwan Hisham. With pen and brush, together they capture Syria from before its precipitous fall to its current state of crisis and mass displacement.

Molly Crabapple and Marwan Hisham: Syria in Ink is curated by Cora Fisher and organized by the Arts & Culture division of the Brooklyn Public Library, BPL Presents. Support for its presentation at Haverford is provided by the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities.

Molly’s latest article for the New York Review of Books, ‘Whores But Organized’: Sex Workers Rally for Reform, is now online. Covering the February 25th rally organized by Decrim NY, Molly reported on and illustrated the sex workers and public officials that showed up to support the decriminalization of sex work.

“I have seen sex workers all of my life,” Jessica Ramos declared. “I have seen them denigrated by neighbors. The answer is always, call the police to fix this. Police do not fix anything.”

“If we are going to combat harm done to the sex worker community, we have to fully decriminalize,” she said, “so we’re creating a space where sex workers can get healthcare, or cooperate with attorneys’ offices to hold those who harm them accountable.”- Queens District Attorney candidate Tiffany Cabán

Last month Molly had the honor of speaking at the ZEE Jaipur Literary Festival in India.She spoke at both The Travel Panel with Carlo Pizzati, Eliza Griswold, Isabella Tree and Ramita Navai, and at speaking event on Brothers of The Gun with William Sieghart.

Tonight, Monday February 11th at 6:30, Molly will be accompanying Deborah Brown, Julia Farrington, Shawné Michaelain Holloway, and Nancy Schwartzman for a panel entitled “Pervasive and Personal: Observations on Free Speech Online” at Theresa Lang Community Center at The New School. Admission is free, but you will need to register online beforehand. Click here for more info and registration details!

“Technology has linked much of the world together, but in its complexity and ubiquity, technology also has deeply personal qualities. It has helped us build relationships and has become a part of our daily lives, something we carry in our pockets wherever we go. This duality of tech and particularly the Internet—its ability to be vast yet intimate—has enabled people to express themselves in unique ways, but also brought with it some serious challenges. Where open channels into each other’s lives exist, the spread of harassment, abuse and vitriol can be equally pervasive and personal.”

And from now until Valentine’s Day use code BLOODBATH to save 15% on your entire order!

Check out Mollys cover art for the latest book by Warren Ellis, Dead Pig Collector, available now at Subterranean Press.

“Mister Sun sees the world in unusual ways—clocking a flight from London to Los Angeles on business at forty thousand seconds, for instance, instead of in terms of hours. But then, he’s in an unusual line of work. His business is death and disposal. Taking a room at his favorite hotel, he ensures all is in order from his latest client. It seems to be…Until he arrives at the intended target’s home to find a different mess to clean up than he expected.”

“To those who knew him, Raid Efendi is a nonentity, a German translator as gray as the Ankara building in which he toils. They never suspect he conceals a secret… the diary of a decades-old romance in Weimar Berlin.

An art school dropout whose shyness isolated him from other people, Raid ends up in Germany in 1923 for the same reasons as did the author Christopher Isherwood, who wrote the novel on which “Cabaret” is based. The Reichsmark is worthless. Foreigners can live cheap. At a gallery, Raif spots the self portrait of a beautiful Jewish woman, Maria Puder- the “Madonna in a Fur Coat”- and falls awkwardly, worshipfully in love.

“I had read enough ideas into that pale face to fill a library” Raif thinks, but Maria is no blank page on which to write the hero’s journey. A painter who sings at a cabaret, she is as blunt as Raif is cowering. To her, men “are the hunters, you see, and we their miserable prey. And our duties? To bow down and obey… but we shouldn’t”

“Madonna in a Fur Coat” is the story of two young people finding themselves in each other while the wold hurtles to ruin.

Published in 1943 by Sabahattin Ali, a writer who is believed to have been murdered by the Turkish State, it shows that the doors to freedom slam shut quickly, but are only opened by courage, nonconformity and love.”

A lot of very exciting things happened in 2018. After three years of hard and dangerous work, Molly and Marwan published Brothers of The Gun through Penguin Random House in May.

The book has been getting amazing reveiws from around the world, is a New York Times Notable book, and was a semifinalist for the National Book award.

The book tour has taken Molly to speaking events and literary festivals all over the US, and to London, Paris, Istanbul, Delhi and Mumbai. Syria In Ink, an exhibition of the original artwork from the book, opened at the Brooklyn Public Library, with simultaneous exhibits at Amnesty International HQ in London and BANT Havuz in Istanbul. The show is currently on tour.

In a collaboration with Ms Saffaa, Molly installed new murals at The Owls Head wine bar in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and in Barrio Mariana, Puerto Rico.

And some of her art was even wheatpasted up around NYC

Molly and the lovely folks at Sharp As Knives also release this video about the money bail industry, narrated by John Legend. They also worked on several short films for Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum.

In Jakarta, Molly collaborated the the Indonesian feminist collectiveHouse of the Unsilencedto do portraits of refugees and women who had had abortions.

In addition to the newly added full-size prints, many of which include donations to some amazing non-profits, we’ve also introduced a Mini-print Mystery Box. Are you brave enough to let Molly choose your prints for you? The Mystery Box includes three mini-prints that span different eras of Molly’s career, but you don’t know what you’ll receive until it arrives. This item is only for the bravest art lovers. Get yours here.

Molly will be in Mumbai this week to speak at the ninth annual Mumbai International Literary Festival, AKA Tata Literature Live! Now spanning three different venues across Mumbai, the festival brings together writers and lovers of literature from around the world. Molly will be joining over 100 other writers and speakers for a weekend filed with panels, workshops, and performances.

On November 17th Molly will join Harnidh Kaur, Kalki Koechlin, Richa Kaul Padte and Sunita Wazir for a panel titled “Code of Conduct: The New Rules at Work”

“Tara Fares has more honor than the members of Parliament and the Iraqi politicians. Because Tara doesn’t swear at people. Tara doesn’t speak in sectarian language. Tara doesn’t suck the blood of the Iraqi people.”

Middle East Eye profiled Marwan for this piece, “The road from Raqqa: A Syrian author lives to tell his tale” where he speaks about collaborating with Molly, and the effects the war has had on him saying “War brings out the best and the worst in people. It is indeed a process of extraction. Only in the imponderable calamity of war one learns what he is truly capable of.”

1843, The Economists’ magazine about culture and ideas, featured Brothers of the Gun in it’s book review “Coming of Age in Syria” saying about the risks that were taken to write the book; “The danger and defiance of Hisham’s and Crabapple’s work only adds to the excitement of reading this dazzling, evocative account of innocence and survival.”

Hong Kong Free Press included Brothers of the Gun in its most recent list of “Best Human Rights Books“, saying “Hisham’s story gives as vivid a sense as any of what it has been like to live through it.” If you’re looking for more amazing literature about human rights, this list is definitely worth looking at.

Next Monday Molly will be speaking at Chicago Ideas Week. She’ll be joining former Mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu, activist David Hogg and several other esteemed activists and entrepreneurs for a panel entitled “Raising Your Hand: What leadership looks like in 2017.” The panel will take place Monday, October 15th at the Harris Theater in Chicago. Tickets are $15, and there are plenty of other fascinating events throughout the week-long the festival. Get your tickets here.

“As the country faces a dearth of leadership from more traditional sources, “accidental leaders” are stepping up and sparking change, often in unexpected ways. At this Talk, a collection of inspiring forerunners will share their personal narratives, and explain what happened when leadership opportunities were thrust upon them. There is a case to be made that the country is in need of a new generation of people in power who are not afraid to challenge the status quo. At this event, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from four people who are quickly becoming the faces of that generation.”

“There is a myth that, before Israel, Jews did not fight. Even Hannah Arendt, making her controversial claim that Jewish leadership collaborated across the board with Nazis, falls into this error. The Bund, the elected leadership of Europe’s largest Jewish community, fought from the first day of the occupation to the last.”

“Though the Bund celebrated Jews as a nation, they irreconcilably opposed the establishment of Israel as a separate Jewish homeland in Palestine. The diaspora was home, the Bund argued. Jews could never escape their problems by the dispossession of others. Instead, Bundists adhered to the doctrine of do’ikayt or “Hereness.” Jews had the right to live in freedom and dignity wherever it was they stood.”

This Thursday, October 4th at 7pm Molly will be joining journalist Murtaza Hussain for a discussion about Brothers of the Gun, recently longlisted for the National Book Award. This talk will be one of the many events at Montclair Art Museums ‘Free First Thursday Nights’ series, in addition to a community conversation about artist Kara Walker, docent-led tours of the museum, life drawing sessions, live music, food vendors and a few other exciting events.

Brothers of the Gun has been longlisted for the most prestigious literary award in America, the National Book Award. Molly and Marwan would like to congratulate their fellow longlisted authors; Dunya Mikhail, Rebecca Solnit, Steve Coll, and Tayari Jones. Thank you to everyone who has bought the book so far, and The National Book Foundation for this incredible honor.

The province of Idlib is the last rebel-held area in Syria. They’re currently bracing for the impending regime invasion that is expected to cause mass destruction and civilian casualties. Molly and Marwan spoke to three citizens of Idlib who described the fear they live in for the New York Times.

“We fall asleep to the roar of fighter planes. We wake up to the same sound in fear. It is very difficult to worry all the time about my children. Everyone is talking about the offensive. We are going to flee and become homeless. If we stay, the regime is going to arrest my sons, if only because they have been dodging the draft for years.”

“We have been living here for years with aerial bombing, but now, if the regime advances, there is no other option for me but crossing into Turkey. I have to save my family. All we want is to stay in our homes and live our lives.”

Post navigation

Sign up for the mailing list

About Molly:
Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer in New York. She is the author of two books, Drawing Blood and Brothers of the Gun, (with Marwan Hisham). Her reportage has been published in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. She has been the recipient of a Yale Poynter Fellowship, a Front Page Award, was shortlisted for a Frontline Print Journalism Award and longslisted for a National Book Award. She is often asked to discuss her work chronicling the conflicts of the 21st Century, and has appeared on All In with Chris Hayes, Amanpour, NPR, BBC News, and more. Her art is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the United States Library of Congress and the New York Historical Society. She is currently the Spring 2019 artist in residence at NYU's Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies.